I was approached by Michael Stephanides, a plastic surgeon out of Nashville Tennessee. Michael wanted a new logo identity for a collaborative business combining his plastic surgery with dermatologist Carla Retief’s cosmetic abilities.
The challenge with this project was coming up with an identity which combined both of Michael and Carla’s services. They wanted something clean, modern, elegant, and reflective of their collaboration. They wished to receive 3 logo concepts.
My approach with this particular concept was to somehow find a way to separate the Retief and Stephanides names without showing a complete division. This required me to come up with a graphic which would represent both of their services.
Since a woman’s body and face are symbolic of both beauty and elegance, this seemed to be an obvious route to take with this design. My only concern was that using female specific imagery in the design may detour male clients from seeking their services. I approached Michael with the concern and he said he didn’t think this would be a problem, especially since the majority of their clientele were women. It turned out the design was not overly feminine after all anyway.
The graphic mark separating the “Stephanides” and “Retief” names is suppose to represent the curve of a woman’s body. It also acts as a good separating mark, similar to a forward slash often used for this purpose (/).
As with all of my clients I approached Michael with a list of selling points with this logo. A way for me to tell him why I think the design works. Here they are:
• Elegant, clean, and simple design.
• The curved separator symbolizes the contour of a woman’s body=beauty.
• Design looks good in a single color.
• The dividing mark can be used by itself as a branding symbol.
• Timeless design (no trendy features).
• Dividing mark shows that there are 2 separate companies, but as a whole; the logo shows the union of the both.
Michael and Carla seemed to be very pleased with their new logo. I created them business cards and letterhead as well. They were a pleasure to work with and I hope to do business with them again.
